Bimal H.

Patel
Dr. Bimal Patel, the son of Ar. Hasmukh Patel is one of the
greatest architects of India practicing in Ahmedabad,
Gujarat.

 EARLY LIFE & EDUCATION:

Bimal Patel lives and practices architecture and city planning inAhmedabad,
India.
Ahmedabad is also the city that he grew up in and its architectural history
and planning culture have influenced and informed his work.
He studied at theSchool of Architecture, Center for Environmental Planning
and Technology, CEPT, from 1978 to 1984.
In 1981, he apprenticed withFrei Ottoat the Institute for Lightweight
Structures, Stuttgart, Germany.
After receiving his first professional degree in architecture from CEPT in 1984
and a year of work in Ahmedabad, Bimal Patel moved toBerkeleyto study at
theCollege of Environmental Design, CED.
He graduated with M.Arch. and M.C.P. degrees in 1988 and a Ph.D. from the
Department of City and Regional Planning in 1995.

CARRER:

While still working on his Ph.D. dissertation, Bimal Patel returned to India in 1990
and joined his fathers architectural practice.
One of his first building design projects, a campus forThe Entrepreneurship
Development Institute, Ahmedabad, won theAga Khan Award for Architecturein
1992.
In 2000 he was selected to build the New Campus for theIndian Institute of
Management, Ahmedabad.
Over the years he has built up a significant body of architectural and urban
design work ranging from single family homes, to institutions, industrial buildings
and urban redevelopment projects. HCPDPM the firm that he heads has won
numerous awards for its projects.

 PHILOSOPHY:

HCP is strongly committed to bringing effective and progressive management

practices to design, planning and construction. Its management philosophy is
rooted in the belief that a collaborative and fair approach is essential to ensuring
high quality and timely implementation within available resources

AWARDS:

Distinguished Alumnus Award, College of Environmental Design, University

of California, Berkeley, 2008
Prime Minister's National Award for Excellence in Urban Planning and Design,
awarded to the Sabarmati Riverfront Development Project, 2002
Emerging Architect Commendation Award, AR+D, 2001
World Architecture Award, 2001
Salzburg Seminar Fellowship, 2000
UNCHS, Best Practices Award, 1998
The Aga Khan Award for Architecture, 1992
Research Fellowship, American Institute of Indian Studies, 1990-91
Newhouse Foundation Grant, 1988-89
Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award, 1987
College of Environmental Design Council Scholarship, 198586

 PROJECTS:

New Campus for IIM, Ahmedabad,2010

Sabarmati Riverfront Development Project, Ahmedabad
Kankaria Lakefront Redevelopment Project, Ahmedabad
Student Housing, Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar
Ahmedabad Management Association , Ahmedabad
Corporate Headquarters, Cadila Pharmaceuticals Limited, Bhat AMA, Ahmedabad
Newman Hall , Ahmedabad
Entrepreneurship Development Institute, Bhat
Gujarat High Court , Ahmedabad

Student Housing, Institute for Plasma Research,

Gandhinagar

Entrepreneurship Development

Gujarat High Court ,

 Entrepreneurship Development Institute, Bhat:

The Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII) was established in

1983. It is located close to Ahmedabad Airport at the village Bhat in
Gandhinagar District. The project was a part of a design competition which was
won by Ar.Bimal Pate. It is a 23-acre (93,000m2) lush green campus consisting
of residential facilities, classrooms, offices and a library, organised within seven
buildings and received theAga Khan Award for Architecture in 1992.

 Plan

The campus consists

of residential
facilities, classrooms,
offices and a library,
organised within
seven buildings
linked by two axes.
An auditorium, to be
built in the future,
will complete the
master plan.
Here formal
orthogonal geometry
dominates the
layout. Each of these
blocks is organized
around a central
courtyard on two
levels. The buildings
are juxtaposed in the
landscape to create
a series of outdoor
spaces.

1. Entrance
2. Inquiry
3. Administration
4. Training centre
5. Research centre
6. Library
7. Trainees hostel
8. Deluxe hostel
9. Kitchen-dinning
10.Auditorium(2nd
phase)

As Ahmedabad was founded in 1411 by

Muslims who endowed the city with a
splendid mix of mosques, mausoleums,
courtyard houses, labyrinths of public
thoroughfares and alleys, private cul-desacs and gates, Bimal Patel's design for the
campus was strongly influenced by his wish
to establish a connection with this rich
accumulation of India's past.
The jury commended Bimal Patel "for his
confident use of formal elements growing
out of the Indo-Islamic architectural
heritage.
A series of geometrically structured
courtyards and loggias are the primary
organising framework. The variation of
open, closed and transitional spaces
provides light and shade, and creates an
inviting environment for work, interaction
and repose."

The EDI campus consists of a

sequence of spaces linked by courts
and corridors, with five verandah
type buildings - three for academics,
placed on higher ground and two for
dormitories.
The area of courts is large in
proportion to building heights, with
landscaped paving and the campus
grounds are planted with evergreen
trees.
Bimal Patel claims his design of this
campus was shaped by three
factors:first,his Master's thesis at
California, where he studied formal
patterns in Indian Islamic
architecture, while reading the work
new urbanist and new classical
architecture theorists.Secondly,an
awareness of the fact he was heading
a design firm that had for long been
practicing a of 'Modem' architecture
in western India, andfinally,the
client's insistence on making a
campus that was in harmony with the
landscape - one that was not

 MATERIAL PALLETE
Here Ar. Bimal Patel has used
exposed materials in order to
minimise the maintainance
cost as well as giving justice
to the pallete

The architect's organisational

principles, as well as his use of
a very limited palette of
building materials - exposed
brick, stone and wood with a
minimal application of
reinforced concrete, steel
trusses and corrugated
aluminium sheet - directly
reflect their traditional Islamic
sources.

 Iim-ahmedabad new campus

TheIndian Institute of
Management
Ahmedabad(IIM
Ahmedabad, also known
as IIMA), was the second
Indian Institute of
Management to be
established in India after
IIM Calcutta.
It was built by Ar. Louis I.
Kahn in 1961
Later in 2001, Ar. Bimal
Patel won the national
competition for the
extension of the old
campus.
The new campus is
seperated by a road from
the old campus.
The new campus acts as
an independent body with
the similar language and
spirit.

 Plan
Located on a 39acre plot, the
extension includes
facilities like; 9
dormitories for 340
students; an
academic block
with 5 classrooms
and seminar
rooms;
administrative
facilities ; IMDC
Hostels; 20 blocks
for married
students; 6 VIP
suites; a sports
complex; kitchen &
dining facilities; a
CIIE Block and 100
guestrooms.
The public areas
are designed to be

 The underpass
Although the new campus
functions independently from
the old without any direct
visual link and even has its
own approach road and
entrance halls, it is connected
to the old campus by means
of an underpass, which
houses an exhibition on Louis
Kahns work. The buildings of
the new campus use exposed
concrete as the primary
building material with
fenestrations in a
combination of mild steel and
wood.

Comparing both, Kahns and Bimal Patels campus, Bimal Patel has tried to keep
the Louis Kahn spirit alive.
There is a continuum, in both spirit and body. If one takes an aerial view and
draws a straight line, the classrooms and dormitories in both the campuses
seem to be placed along it. Even the room numbers are continued.
Bimal Patel believed that to copy Louis Kahn is to insult him. To honour him, the
new building had to uphold the same values that he held dear.

Bimal Patel
densified his
plan, bringing
greater intensity
to those allimportant
courtyards,
corridors and
passageways
According to him,
these open
spaces
addressed one of
the perceived
problems of the
Kahn site - that
many of the
professors saw
its empty

comparison

Bimal Patel
focused on
circulation by
using elevated
corridors as the
principal
ordering device
same as Kahn
did.

Bimal Patel has

used the bulls
eye arches
same as Kahn
in order to
maintain the
architectural
language of the
institute.

New
campus

New
campus

Old
campus

Old
campus

Both of them
used scale as a
mojar factor to
show the
monumentality
of the
institutional
building.

Similar to Louis
Khan, Bimal
Patel also use
exposed
materials in
order to give
justice to the
materials.
Louis Khan use
concrete with
bricks while
Bimal Patel used

New
campus

Old
campus

New
campus

Old
campus